A couple of days ago, I ran into an ex-girlfriend. I dated her for a little while last year and it was fun, but never had much long-term potential. We decided to go our separate ways but definitely did so on friendly terms. So it was nice to see her again. Keep in mind that when we dated, I was significantly fatter than I am now. At least 40 pounds heavier.
Our conversation started out like most of my conversations do these day. It went something like this:
GIRL: Hey! What’s up? Great to see you!
ME: Good to see you, too.
GIRL: Wow, you look really great. I barely recognized you. You’re wasting away. Every time I see you, you’re skinnier.
ME: Um… thanks…
GIRL: How did you lose so much weight so fast?
ME: Um…
This is the part of the conversation that I’m not sure how to answer anymore. When I first started having these “How Did You Get So Skinny” conversations, I was pretty evangelical about Medifast and would be quick to tell the person all about it. However, I soon realized that they didn’t really want to know. A lot of times, people were quick to dismiss Medifast as some kind of scam/fad/dangerous diet.
Despite the fact that I was standing in front of them. 40 pounds lighter than the last time they’d seen me. Feeling better than ever. Living proof that it really does work.
They DID want to talk about their own personal weight loss theories. Or some kind of “cookie diet” that they’d seen on Entertainment Tonight. Or how they could never give up some kind of food they were addicted to. If they happened to be skinny, they usually wanted to ramble on a bit about the obesity epidemic in America. (Digression: If you cross over from the fat side to the skinny side, you will soon learn that skinny people have some serious issues with fat people.)
So, continuing the earlier conversation…
GIRL: How did you lose so much weight so fast?
ME: Um… I just ate less and exercised more.
To make a long story short, I just got tired of talking about Medifast and defending the health benefits of the program. I’m just tired of talking about weight loss. More specifically, I’m tired of listening to other people talk to me about it.
Is this a cop-out?
What do YOU talk about when you talk about losing weight?
I totally agree that it is hard to talk about your successes (and failures). What I find is that as soon as someone complements me on losing weight, I start letting my guard down, allowing myself to eat things that I know I shouldn’t….Sometimes I wish that no one would make the comments – then I just would go along my merry little way, not over-analyzing everything that they said and sabotage kicks in.
I think you handled it great & I totally agree w/ your reasoning. Most people lack understanding about MF & many other weight control strategies.
I too received the comments that I lost weight fast. I denied that opinion. I said it just took awhile before anyone noticed. Told them I began my efforts 2 mos before the real date, & that it was just awhile before they noticed. I tell them it’s actually been going slow. I talk about the exercise I do, and play that angle up. I don’t EVER give them any numbers (how much I’ve lost or hope to lose).
I understand the compliment problem. I have a worse time with the scale. My brain and mouth want to relax when the scale shows a nice drop. What’s worse is my most recent problem – the scale showed a gain, spiraling me into off-plan mode. I’m working on recovery at the moment.